Cinema: "L'Eden" by Colombian director Andrés Ramírez Pulido, far from paradise

"Eden" by Andrés Ramírez Pulido, on screens Wednesday, March 22, 2023: Teenage delinquents renovate a hacienda to serve their sentence. A deal was made between the prison administration and the wealthy owner of the house, lost in the rainforest. © Pyramid films

Text by: Isabelle Le Gonidec

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The film, which will be released this Wednesday, March 22 on French screens, arrives from the Critics' Week in Cannes in 2022, where it won the Grand Prix and SACD Prize. In this second feature film, Andrès Ramirez Pulido questions the possibility of forgetting, or at least turning the page on a heavy past.

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This month of March 2023, three Colombian films by young directors, featuring street teenagers, are released on screens. In Eden, both protagonists are real criminals. These are the very first images of the film: the two drunk teenagers organize an ambush at night, kill a man and hide the body. We will know who the man in question is and who they actually wanted to kill much later in the story. Generic, then without transition, we find Eliú, one of the protagonists of the murder, his gaze lost in the contemplation of a swimming pool where float, on the gloomy water, rotten fruits and branches ...

Non-professional actors

The life of the community to which Eliú was transferred to serve his sentence is organized a lot around this muddy pool, as a symbol of the mud in which these kids lived, and the work they have to do to scrub it, that it becomes clean again and the water clear... like them. The teenagers must rehabilitate the beautiful, ruined property in which they live. A suffocating green labyrinth, like the forest that surrounds it. It was a beautiful hacienda whose walls are now covered with moss and saltpeter, whose broken window tiles let in vegetation. In the past, there was a bandstand there and the taps were gold, say young people who dream of organizing parties with girls and cam at will.

Jhojan Estiven Jimenez is Eliú in Andres Ramirez Pulido's film. Most of the actors are non-professional actors. Eliú, face closed, forehead always down, carries the consciousness of his guilt. © Pyramid films

In addition to the physical labor itself, they also have to work on themselves. It is Alvaro, the group leader, who animates it: relaxation sessions, meditation, coaching to expel the "dark energies". No physical violence, but tight questionnaires in which teenagers must recognize who thief, who murders, all liars, drug addicts, bastards ... Alvaro, a symbol of relatively benevolent authority, is himself a former delinquent who tries to control his own demons. Masterful interpretation of Miguel Viera Zamudio (who had already been seen in Pájaros de verano) and as a rule protagonists of the film who are not professional actors. Among these demons, in all, one constant: violence and instability in the family environment, a hatred of the father and an unconditional love of the mother. Adolescents, fruits and victims of a destructured society even if the social and political context is not explained.

"The Invisible"

With the arrival of his accomplice El Mono in the center, the relative harmony that reigned in the group and the peace that Eliú seemed to have found, gradually crumbled. El Mono refuses to play Alvaro's game and lend himself to his DIY therapy exercises. Eliú revisits the crime scene at night in his nightmares and avoids his former comrade... A reconstruction of the murder is organized in the presence of the family of the victim - whose body has not been found - and the two young offenders. A victim who had precisely the nickname "the Invisible", because one day, he had a revelation and his life had turned upside down. A former delinquent, he had become a tidy man.

What did he see? Why did his body disappear into the cave? Andrès Ramirez Pulido adds a dimension of mystery and even spirituality to his story. So there is redemption possible? Is it possible to tear yourself away from "The Pack", the original title of the film (La Jauria)? Every teenager has his mantra that he recites it. Eliú's ends with "I have decided to be a new man"...

Cinema: "L'Eden" by Colombian director Andrés Ramírez Pulido, far from paradise

Cinema: "L'Eden" by Colombian director Andrés Ramírez Pulido, far from paradise

Non-professional actors

"The Invisible"

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